Planning our Next Vacation Adventure

Happy snow day to all my Dallas* friends and sending warm wishes to the rest of the country as this cold blast heads east!

(*Now that’s something I never thought I’df say, but I think our reputation from bringing awful weather everywhere persists.)

My “What I’m Reading Wednesday” post did NOT make it up yesterday, mostly because I was too busy alternately trip planning and compulsively checking social media/the news/my weather app to determine if the kids would have school today. (They didn’t. Brrr.)

However, the day wasn’t completely lost (as ill organized as it was). I did discover some great websites for vacation planning! I’m headed to San Antonio, so the first place I hit was the Visit San Antonio website, which is a treasure trove of things to do in the area. It even lets me map out an itinerary for our visit, and you know I love my lists!

From all our travel through Europe and the UK while we lived in Wales, one habit I developed was taking some sort of tour on the first day, be it guided, walking, or on a bus – it’s a great way to get an overview of the city, decide what you really want to go explore and also get your bearings quickly. When we went travelling around Europe, I also fell in love with holiday apartments rather than hotels (you can browse here). Staying in an apartment or villa is a great option if you’re travelling in large groups or if you want to save a bit of money. Most of the villas we stayed in were actually nicer than hotels! Bear this in mind when you’re planning your next vacation!

(I take the same perspective with cruising, particularly the Mediterranean cruises, as you get a quick taste of different destinations. But I digress.)

We hadn’t done much exploring when we returned to Chicago, but now that we are living in Texas and have so many new cities to explore, I plan on reinstating the habit. One fun way we are going to try is by taking an Urban Adventure Quest while in San Antonio.

Whether you are headed to San Antonio like me (or staying home in Dallas or Chicago, or many other fun destinations) you can turn the city into a giant game board! Urban Adventure Quest is a fun scavenger hunt adventure that combines the excitement of the Amazing Race (which actually inspired this game) with a self-guided city tour.

Using a smart phone, teams of 2-5 people make their way among well-known and overlooked gems of the city, solving clues and completing challenges while learning local history – a great way to combine education with family fun time.

You start when you want and play at your pace, either straight through to get the best time (for which you win top spot on the leader board) or exploring as you go, taking time for a tour of some of the locations, or a quick bite or cup of coffee – it’s totally up to you!

And I have a deal for you to save 20%: it is only $39.20 for a team of 2-5 people using Promotion Code: FGBLOG.

You can check out the available cities and sign up online at www.UrbanAdventureQuest.com.

We’ll be having our own little Amazing Race soon…hopefully without the crazy scary challenges, though.